Today I got the rest of the supplies I needed to finish off the bathroom. I got a dual flush toilet, tile, a tile saw, some tile cement, and a few hand tools for handling the cement mix. It was the most expensive part of the remodel but owning the tools will allow me to tile whenever I want.

I’m planning on tiling the bathroom tomorrow (its only 50 sq. ft.) and putting in the toilet. Then through the coming week I’ll finish off the trim. The bathroom is being painted right now so that will be done.

After my last guitar build I realized that I would need to make more jigs. Since I have rough cut a few necks I decided to start making neck jigs. The first of these is a jig for routing the joint where the neck meets the guitar body. Usually with a dovetail or bolt on configuration.

I used a single piece of MDF (2’x4′) to make this whole jig (and still had some left over.) However if I had to do this over again I would have used plywood. The MDF tends to not hold up when you take thickness out of it as I have done here. So I will likely be making another one of these in the future.

Previously I had purchased some neck routing templates and made this jig to accommodate those templates. They just slide into the slot I made and bolt in place for routing. I have not yet tried this jig because I need to find the right bolts to use, but I have high hopes that it will work fine.

If you want more specifics on how I built this just comment and I can help you out.

As a side note: I’ve realized a better way to cut guitar necks and am at a stand still with the current six necks I cut. While I’m hoping I can salvage the six I cut, I am also not kidding myself that they may all end up scrap. Bummer.

This past week I changed the blades on my planer (Craftsman 21722) and decided to share a few lessons I’ve learned about it.

Tip* If your machine (planer or not) makes A LOT of noise when cutting it’s very likely your blades need changed or sharpened. My planer was making such a noise so I looked into getting new blades. While looking for new blades online I found that my planer has reversible blades (as most do.) So I canceled the blades from my cart and went to the shop to flip the existing blades around.

There are procedures in the owner’s manual on how to do this. If you lost the owner’s manual there might be instructions placed on a sticker right on your machine. And if that fails I’ll tell you what I did with mine.

Disclaimer* That doesn’t mean I’m right or that you should do the same thing I did.Try this at your own risk.

First, I unplugged the planer, raised the deck as high as it would go and layed the planer on its side so I could see in. When looking in you will see the blades and a bunch of screws with allen wrench heads holding them in. I loosened all of these but did not take them all the way out. My planer had two (2) blades, yours may be different so be careful! The blades are typically guided in place by a magnet or alignment pins or both so be aware of this when removing the blades. Secondly there are holes in the middle of the blade so you don’t have to fiddle around with lining it up perfectly. Take extreme caution when handling these blades, they are incredibly sharp! You also do not want to drop them or pry on them because you could damage the blade. The smallest dent or nick in the blade can really screw up the finish it leaves on your wood!

Lastly, I flipped the blades to the new side and tightened the allen heads. I stood the machine back up-right, lowered the deck back down to a reasonable height, stood clear of the machine and turned it on as a test. Once I saw it was working correctly I ran a piece of scrap wood through. I could not believe how quiet it was and what a great finish it left! Hopefully this info will help you!

A friend of mine has a large amount of books in a rather small space. I visit quite often and took notice to this problem. One day in passing I mentioned that I could build him a big bookshelf on his one ‘big’ wall. A week or two went by and he said you know that’s a good idea, lets do it. So, I drafted up a plan, wrote a bill of materials and off to the hardware store went.

The design was for nine (9) 2″x 12″x 8′ pine boards. Eight were shelves and the ninth was an end piece. Then we got two (2) shelf hangers per board, screws and paint. I took the shelves to my garage because it was the only place big enough to lay out all the boards and paint them at once. I gave each board two coats of black paint on all sides and let them dry a day.

That weekend I took the boards over to my friends house and started cutting them to length. (You might be able to see only the ‘end walls’ of his house are flat so each board was custom cut to fit the contour of that wall/ceiling.) Luckily he had moved all his books and his old bookshelves out of the way, saving me a heap of time and effort. We started with the bottom shelf and worked up to the top, leveling them as we went. Finally put the end board up to give it a built in look. I’m really happy with how this turned out and it really helped give his books a home.

It has been a while since I posted. At least it feels like that anyway. Going on vacation can really throw off my perspective on time!

The last time I posted I was just starting the sanding phase. I managed to sand all the pieces starting with 100 grit to 220 grit to 400 grit all the way to 600 grit, and am I glad I did that! It is incredibly smooth and looks great! I’ll have to sand over it again once I get it together but I really don’t mind doing that.

The best way I could figure to glue this together was to lay the legs down and glue the shelves in that way. One shelf at a time, then do the other side. After that I glued the top braces I made as an after thought. I added them because I wanted more surface area contacting the top of the stand. If my words don’t make sense maybe the pictures will. Also, I used the two scrapers (shown in pictures) to clean up the excess glue. They make quick work of glue clean-up without doing too much damage to your sanding job.

Lastly, I started cutting the cross-braces. I only got one side started before I ran out of time. Hopefully by the next post I’ll be ready for the finish! A respected friend of mine recommended ‘danish oil’ for a finish. I’ve never used it so I’ll give it a try on the frame I made.

A friend of mine had an old Ibanez Gio with the fretboard lifting off the neck. Rather than remove the whole fretboard I just lifted it and cleaned it out the best I could. Next, I used hide glue to reattach the fretboard and clamped it for 24 hours. Below are the before and after photos.

I still need to clean it up and I spoke with him about getting a new nut on there (as you can see he put a hurting on the thing!) I am going to go ahead and do that. Hope this helps someone.

While in the shop today I began to prep this guitar for repair. I was just about to tape off the bridge area when I noticed a crack in the soundboard.

My shop is still not put together and I could not find my mirror to see the extent of the damage on the inside. By the looks of it the crack is all the way through the soundboard, which would explain why the bridge fell off (also probably due to a terrible job of putting it on in the first place.) Until I am able to find the mirror I’m putting this repair on hold (due to it’s value possibly indefinitely.) This is a guitar I acquired from a friend and no one is waiting on it so I’m not in a big rush.

On the plus side, I found some of the violin parts I had been working on before the move. I can’t seem to find some of the hardware I bought for it but I found the violin itself and the new fingerboard. I would like to finish this project but I need to find those parts first.

Even the best of intentions can be side-lined by family and holidays. That is the case for me in making progress on this guitar repair. I was not going to post this since I don’t really have anything to show other than the guitar that needs repaired. However, since most people are on vacation and might need a quick read after feasting I decided to go ahead and put something up. Also, I keep testing this ‘aside’ format in WordPress hoping I will figure out how it’s different from ‘normal.’

Shown below is a picture of the guitar in need of repair. This should be a simple procedure of reattaching the bridge. It is an acoustic electric so I’ll need to be careful of all those internal parts.

I know a few fellow luthiers read this blog and if you have any suggestions on the electronics side of this repair, please feel free to comment here or on my facebook page. Thanks and have a good Thanksgiving!